Labour Day in J&K: No More Salutes Without Justice
From mass unemployment to invisible informal work, Jammu and Kashmir’s workers need dignity, security and rights, not another day of empty homage
On International Labour Day, speeches are easy, slogans are plentiful, and ceremonial tributes cost little. What is difficult and morally urgent is to confront the lived reality of labour in Jammu and Kashmir. Behind the postcards of tourism, behind the rhetoric of development, stands a vast workforce carrying the burden of economic uncertainty, joblessness, informality and neglect. If May Day is to mean anything in 2026, it must become an occasion not merely for praise of labour, but for justice to workers. Jammu and Kashmir’s labour question is not abstract. It is visible in the educated young man waiting endlessly for recruitment lists, in the woman excluded from meaningful work, in the construction labourer without security, in the artisan trapped between shrinking returns and rising costs, and in the delivery rider racing through towns without insurance, stability or bargaining power. Official labour data for J&K has shown a labour force participation rate of 47.7% and unemployment of 4.8% for those aged 15–59 on one standard measure, while other analyses have pointed to far sharper distress among youth and women. By late 2025, 3.57 lakh educated youth were reported registered as unemployed with the Department of Employment, a figure that should unsettle any serious policymaker. The deeper crisis, however, lies in the quality of work. A large share of J&K’s workers remain in the informal economy without formal contracts, paid leave, health cover or reliable social security. The law may promise protection, but the worker on the ground often knows only vulnerability. This contradiction is especially glaring in the age of platform work. India’s Social Security Code recognises gig and platform workers in principle, yet in Jammu and Kashmir, only 3,328 gig and platform workers were reported registered on the e-Shram portal by early 2026, exposing how far the system remains from the workers it claims to serve. This Labour Day, Jammu and Kashmir needs more than commemorations. It needs transparent recruitment, serious private-sector expansion, enforceable minimum wages, registration of unorganised and gig workers, and social security that exists in practice, not only on paper. A society that depends on labour cannot continue to deny dignity to labour. The true measure of progress is not how loudly we celebrate workers on May 1, but how honestly we stand with them on every other day of the year.
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